Annual cost of Scottish Government communications team: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/17/01650
Date received: 15 July 2017
Date responded: 29 August 2017

Information requested

1. The cost to the public purse was of the Scottish Government communications team in the most recent financial year for which figures are available.

2. The cost was of the communications team in each year since 2007; and what the projected costs are for 2017/18.

3. For each year since 2007 how many people were employed within the communications division.

3a. For each of the years, how many of those employed had a press office function.

3b. For each of the years, how many were special advisers.

Response

1&2. The cost of frontline communications staff/press officers in each year since 2007 to the most recent financial year is available at /publications/cost-of-frontline-communications-staff/

Costs for 2017-18 will be published on the Scottish Government website after the end of the current financial year.

3. The Communications Division has only existed in its current form since 2013-14. As well as frontline communication staff/press officers it includes staff responsible for marketing campaigns, digital platforms, internal engagement, media monitoring and administration/business management.

From 2007-08 to 2012-13 the Communications Division only included frontline communications staff/press officers, media monitoring staff and administration/business management staff (i.e it did not include staff responsible for marketing campaigns, digital platforms and internal engagement). In order to provide comparible figures we have provided an additional column for staff not included within Communications Division from 2007-08 to 2012-13 but involved in the communications related activity specified above.

Numbers of full-time equivalent (FTE) staff vary throughout the financial year and the figures represent staff numbers on just one day of each year (March 31). This means that these figures are a 'snapshot': they do not represent either a total number or average number of staff employed in the year.

Year	FTE (Communications Division)	FTE (Communications staff not included within Communications Division from 2007-08 to 2012-13)
2007-2008	67	36.9
2008-2009	70.8	35.2
2009-2010	63	42.6
2010-2011	63	39.6
2011-2012	63	42.5
2012-2013	63	51.2
2013-2014	134	N/A
2014-2015	122	N/A
2015-2016	138	N/A
2016-2017	125	N/A

3a. The number of FTE frontline communications staff/press officers is set out in the table below.

Numbers of FTE staff vary throughout the financial year and the figures listed below represent staff numbers on just one day of each year (March 31). This means that these figures are a 'snapshot': they do not represent either a total number or average number of staff employed in the year.

Year	FTE
2007-08	51.2
2008-09	48.4
2009-10	44
2010-11	36.41
2011-12	37.97
2012-13	37.28
2013-14	50.14
2014-15	40.9
2015-16	43.7
2016-17	38.6

3b. There are no special advisers employed within Communications Division.

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